Inslee calls on firms to make safety equipment for COVID-19 fight

Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday called on Washington firms to manufacture safety and testing equipment in the fight against COVID-19, saying that President Trump has not ordered companies nationwide in a World War II-like effort to make those items.

“We can’t depend on being rescued here. We have to do self-rescue. We have to be committed to our own destiny. We have to step up to the plate, and that is what I am asking people to do today. ... We know this. What we have done so far is not enough,” he said at a news conference.

Inslee said the state has distributed over 1 million pieces of personal protective equipment, but more is urgently needed. In addition to recruiting manufacturers to shift over to making items such as surgical masks and parts for test kits, the governor repeated his call for Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act for a national effort to manufacture personal protective equipment.

“We are grateful that the President did use that for ventilators, but there are so many other pieces of equipment that we desperately need,” the governor said.

Inslee’s comments came as The Washington Post reported that the federal government’s emergency stockpile of respirator masks, gloves and other medical supplies is running low and is nearly exhausted because of the coronavirus outbreak, leaving the Trump administration and the states to compete for personal protective equipment in a freewheeling global marketplace rife with profiteering and price-gouging.

In response to a question, Inslee said he and other governors don’t know how much is in the national stockpile. Washington has an ongoing order for more safety equipment. The federal government has not been able to supply it fast enough to meet the needs of nurses, doctors, maintenance workers at hospitals and long-term care facilities, firefighters, police officers and other emergency responders, he said.

The state needs surgical masks, swab tests, saline solution, vials, N95 masks, gloves, surgical gowns, and face shields, the governor said.

“If you are a business that can make any of these products or even components of these products, you will have an infinite demand because the entire nation is suffering what we are on the scarcity of these products. So don’t worry about the demand. Whatever you can make, we will find a place to sell it. We will use it first and then the rest of the nation can use it as well,” Inslee said.

The state Department of Commerce said as of Wednesday morning, there were 350 manufacturers in the pipeline to participate in the effort to make personal protective equipment. About 40 distilleries have retooled in the last two weeks to manufacture hand sanitizer.

Kris Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the Association of Washington Business, and Dan Nordstrom, chief executive officer of Outdoor Research, joined Inslee at the press conference.

AWB has recruited about 60 manufacturing firms so far.

“We know that many more manufacturers want to raise their hand and volunteer to step up,” Johnson said.

Seattle-based Outdoor Research — which makes tactical gloves for the military in addition to selling clothes and tents to outdoor enthusiasts — has purchased manufacturing and test equipment so it can retool to produce N95 respirators and surgical masks.

The firm expects to produce about 831,000 surgical masks per week, with the first delivery in early May. Also, Outdoor Research expects to produce 332,000 N95 respirators per week by mid-May, according to the state Department of Commerce.

Inslee said this month could be “decisive” for Washington and the nation in the battle against COVID-19.

“We know that this is a stern foe. It is an invisible foe, but it is not one that we cannot master by seizing our own destiny, doing the things, working together to tame this beast,” he said.

This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 2:23 PM.